


Hanging By A String

by kirkland_strider



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood and Gore, Child Abuse, F/F, F/M, Homophobia, M/M, Minor Character Death, Zombie Apocalypse, for like one chapter its ok, lots of blood and gore, the dirkroxy is supposed to be paler but idk anymore, zombie au yeah real original ks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-07 07:52:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1890942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirkland_strider/pseuds/kirkland_strider
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's hard, being eighteen years old and protecting your kid brother from the apocalypse.</p><p>It's hard and nobody understands what's going on anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dirk: Protect your kid brother from the apocalypse.

**Author's Note:**

> i lied about this being jakeroxy and im not afraid fight me irl
> 
> im not sure how long this'll be i'll probably cap it off at chapter fifteen
> 
> anyway have fun

What? Why the fuck would you want to do that. The last time you had to do was when he snuck into your horror anime stash, the little shit. He was traumatized for a week, which you guessed was a good enough punishment in itself. Right now Dave was in the living room watching Adventure Time: nothing you had to protect him from. At least for right now.

Your name is Dirk Strider. You're eighteen years old and only a few short weeks away from graduating high school. You can't wait to get out of this hellhole of a house, because.

"Dirk!"

Because of them.

"I thought we told you to clean the house while we were gone," your father snapped.

"What about it isn't clean?" you asked politely. "The only space I've left is this very table so that I can study for finals."

"Don't sass us," your mother spat from behind your father. She had a bandage wrapped around her forearm and you hoped it was an incident from work. "We've seen the living room, and your room."

Your room was the only safe space you could be in, and while your parents nearly never went in it, you cleaned it anyway. Or so you thought. There were a lot of things you didn't want them to find. "What the f-heck were you in my room for?" you asked defensively. Shit you almost swore in front of them.

Your father raised an eyebrow and thankfully dismissed the stumble. "We wanted to make sure you cleaned the whole house. We weren't expecting to find, well.  _This._ " He held up a certain magazine that made your heart stop.

"We thought it was a joke!" you mother laughed dryly. "We thought, oh, there is no way our son reads gay porn. But then we found more. And more."

"I. I'm not gay," you stammered. You were certain that your brother was listening in on the conversation by now and you couldn't seem scared of your parents. Not in front of him.

"Then explain this. Now."

You tried to come up with an excuse but you fell short. And when you opened your mouth to spew some kind of bullshit, the back of your father's hand connected with your face and made a loud slapping sound.

You stayed motionless. That would no doubt make a mark, and the sting of your father's ring was more prominent than ever. You wished he would take it off for once.

"You're disgusting!" your mother shrieked. "I want you out of this house before tomorrow!"

"Mom-" you started.

"Don't call me that," she cut you off and narrowed her eyes. "You're no son of mine."

Before you could be insulted by them any further, you saw Dave poking his head into the kitchen. "What's going on?" he asked softly.

He was missing his shades, which were a bit different from the ones crookedly perched on your nose. Your parents made you wear them to conceal your "hideous" eye colors.

"Nothing you have to worry about. Go to bed," your father dismissed, his eyes not leaving you.

Dave nodded and, after glancing suspiciously at you, was gone.

You stood up from your chair and gathered your books. "I'll be gone by tonight," you promised curtly.

They said nothing and let you rush upstairs.

You shoved what you needed in a suitcase: clothes, your laptop, your savings. Your sword, which your parents didn't even know you had and was one of the things that you thought they had found initially.

A few years ago you had taken a martial arts class in secret in order to protect yourself if your parents ever got really bad, but luckily you've never had to use the skills you learned. And thankfully never will now.

You could hear your parents arguing downstairs and you had to smirk. You had caused their unhappiness.

For a good ten minutes you were texting whatever friends you had asking if you could stay the night, and to your dismay none of them were able to say yes. Worst case scenario, you could stay in the park for the night and make friends with the homeless living there.

You filled a backpack with all your school things and when you were nearly ready to climb out the window, there was a soft knock at the door. It wouldn't have been either of your parents so you said softly, "Come in."

It was Dave, confirming your assumption. He had the most worried expression on his face, bless his soul. He was only thirteen years old, but you would have thought he'd know better to conceal his emotions. He was probably worried about you.

"Bro I-"

"Yeah, I know, the folks are kicking me out. Listen, okay? Don't ever tell them how you really feel, whether it be about their opinions or about who you like or any of that stuff. I want you to be safe."

"It's not that."

You raised an eyebrow.

"It's just. I was going downstairs to get a glass of water and I think you made Mom really mad," he said quickly. If you didn't know better you would have said his voice was shaking. You really hoped it wasn't and you played it cool.

"What makes you say that? She smash a plate again?"

He shook his head and you waited for him to continue.

"Well, oh god, Bro, she's _eating_ Dad."

* * *

 

You let that information sink in for a second. "You mean... sexually?"

"No, like there was blood everywhere, and I don't think he was moving, and-" Dave's voice cracked and yeah, he was trembling.

Holy shit though, that sounded really fucked up and you were sure this wasn't a joke. You never joked about what your parents did. "Did she see you?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay, just. Go in your room, lock the door, and don't open it for anyone but me." You stood up. "I think something's going down."

"Like what?"

"Hell if I know. Now go." He darted out of your room and down the hall.

You didn't even care anymore. You grabbed your sword from your suitcase and unsheathed it because even if your mother did die, jail would be hell of a lot better than living here.

The kitchen was a terrifying sight. Your father, no. _The body_ of your father lay on the floor. His intestines seem to have been ripped out and there was blood everywhere. You tried to suppress the urge to puke because your mother was nowhere to be seen. There were bloody footprints leading out the kitchen and you followed them.

You heard her before you saw her. Or at least, you thought the distant, inhuman snarling was her because it sounded like her voice. Your eyes darted down the trail of footsteps and.

They led upstairs to your brother's room. And then there was a loud banging noise.

You don't know why she wasn't yelling at him as she usually would when he locked the door but you couldn't bring yourself to give a shit. Once upstairs, you brandished your sword.

"Hey bitch," you snarled. "Why don't you get the fuck away from that door, huh?"

The woman that turned around was simultaneously your mother, and not. Her usually perfect blond hair was stringy and her skin was graying. And when she looked at you, oh fuck. Her eyes were so milky and clouded over that you couldn't see her pupils at all.

She then lunged at you and you expected her to do it slower. You still managed to dodge whatever attack she was planning on because she slashed her fingers at open air. You didn't want to kill her. This, this _thing_ was your mother and even though she was terrible since birth, it was immoral to kill someone. She didn't seem to care about that because she snarled again and reached for you. Suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of terror, you thrusted your sword through her chest.

It cut like butter and the blood that oozed out was an impossibly dark red, too dark for it to be human blood. Your mother wasn't phased by it and kept snarling, which terrified you even more because that should have killed her. So, you did what any normal human being would: pulled your sword out of her chest and kicked her down the stairs.

She still wasn't dead. Her leg seems to have been broken or at least sprained, so when she tried limping up the stairs she fell again when she got halfway. You knew if you left her like this she would probably end up either giving up or killing herself, but you didn't leave her. Instead you walked down the stairs and stared down at her. The look she gave you wasn't human, it was one of pure hunger and malice as she reached for your leg.

You didn't give her the chance and cut off her hand. She made a noise of dissatisfaction instead of pain so you cut off the other one too. And then, with a swallow, you cut off her head.

She went limp after that and after watching her blood ooze out of the hole in her neck, you puked. And then you sat down on the stairs and did something you haven't since you were a teenager: you cried.

Your brother must have noticed because you heard his door open and then you heard him gasp.

"Bro... what did you do?" you heard Dave's voice ask.

"Look, let me just-"

"You killed Mom!"

You gathered yourself together and took off your shades to wipe your eyes. "That wasn't Mom," you said slowly. You stood up and looked at Dave. His expression told you that he was terrified. "What that thing was, it wasn't human. She. It didn't die when I stabbed it."

He still huddled into himself and when you heard him sniffle you realized he was crying too. You dropped your sword and made your way up the stairs. He took a step back from you and when you stooped down to his level, you hoped it would be apparent that you would never hurt him. Instead you hugged him and he hugged you back, something you both never did. This was a different case.

"What's gonna happen to us?" Dave asked into your shoulder.

"I don't know," you answered honestly. "They're gonna find out what I did and they're probably gonna take me to jail. You're gonna be sent to a foster home."

"They can't do that," he said stubbornly. "You're all I have left."

You were about to reply when a snarl cut you off. You turned around because you were sure you'd killed that bitch but no, it was the body of your father that was crawling out of the kitchen with his organs trailing behind him.

"What the fuck," Dave said slowly.

You didn't bother to correct Dave on his language because the same thought had crossed your mind. That's not possible, you saw your father dead.

His pupils were white and you realized that this thing was the same as whatever your mother was.

"Okay, I believe you on the. Monster thing," he said, swallowing in the middle of his sentence.

"Get back," you told him. Your eyes darted downstairs to your sword and you had maybe a fifty percent chance of getting to it before your father.

And so you went for it, taking the stairs three at a time. You managed to grab your sword but he grabbed the leg of your pants.

You tried kicking him off and it didn't work, so you kicked him in the face instead. He was stunned and let go of your leg which gave you the chance to jump off the stairs and over him.

Bad choice. You slipped in your mother's blood and tripped. Your sword went skittering across the floor. Your father turned around and began crawling for you, and terrified, you backed up. Your back hit the couch and you knew if you stood up, he would catch you.

Or maybe not. Something hit the back of your father's head and fell to the floor. It was a keyboard mouse. He turned to see where that had come from and you saw Dave standing on the stairs, his arms full of possible projectiles from his room.

"Yeah, that's right, crawl your fat ass over here," Dave said before chucking a glass. It didn't seem to do much so he also flung a pen.

It gave you enough distraction to grab your sword and cut off your father's head. That must have been the way to kill them because he stopped moving.

You ran a hand through your hair and cringed, because you had blood on your hands. Dave looked a little less freaked out than he was the first time.

You sighed, your mind running a million miles a minute. You had to figure out what was going on. "Dave, I want you to look up anything on 'cannibalism' on Google and see if you come up with anything local or recent. Or, better yet, turn on the news."

"What're you gonna do?" he asked.

"I'm barricading the doors," you answered, "because if both of our parents turned into the same thing, it's unlikely that they were alone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY I LIED ABOUT THIS BEING JAKEROXY
> 
> like it was going to be something else entirely and then i came up with this instead and i had a lot more inspiration


	2. Dave: Find out what the hell is going on here.

Pardon? First of all, your name isn't Dave. You don't even know a Dave! Second of all, there's nothing going on for you to find out about.

Your name is John Egbert and you're ankle deep in homework.

It's not your fault, really. You have projects and worksheets and study guides and it's honestly weighing you down. You hope high school won't be this hard.

You were just about to get up for a snack break when someone opened your bedroom door and locked it behind them.

You swiveled in your chair to see your only and therefore best friend Jade Harley. You smiled at her, but she looked way too worried for it to be a smiling matter.

"Jade? What brings you here?" You perked up.

"Is your dad home?" she asked.

"No, he usually doesn't get home from work until like five. What's up?"

"I wanted to make sure you guys were okay."

"Why? What happened?"

She opened and closed her mouth. And then she stepped over to your desk and turned on your computer. After a quick search she pulled up a news website from somewhere in New York and opened the most recent post from a few weeks ago.

A video took over your screen and she pressed play.

"Good evening, Albany. Recently, local scientists at Lalonde Laboratories discovered the cure for cancer. After initial testing, vaccinations have been sent out worldwide and many of who you know and love may already have had themselves vaccinated," the woman on screen announced sternly.

"So what, isn't this a good thing?" you asked her.

"Shh. Keep watching."

So you did.

"Unfortunately, the vaccination has triggered a disease which causes the victim to develop cannibalistic behaviors and for their cells to rapidly regenerate when wounded. The disease seems to spread either through the vaccination, or when bitten by one that has contacted the disease, and the only known cure for this is death to the brain. When reporters went to the laboratories to interrogate project leader Professor Lalonde on the side effects of her research, they found her dead." By now the woman is crying. "I urge you all to stay in your homes until the disease has passed over. Stay safe, Albany."

You were a little speechless, to say in the least. Jade was looking at you expectantly.

"...This is a joke, right?"

"I wish," Jade said softly. "I saw this the other day and thought it was a joke, especially since we're all the way in Seattle. Then this kid started eating his teacher at school and they sent everyone home."

"What are we supposed to do?" You were starting to get more than a little scared.

"Well, Jake and I came here because we thought it'd be better to not be alone. And no, neither of us've been vaccinated by that stuff."

You remembered something and your blood ran cold. "Jade."

"What, what's wrong?"

"Dad was supposed to get one today."

Jade's eyes widened. "You need to call him right now."

The phone rang. And rang. When it went to the recording you've heard a thousand times, starting with "Hello, you've reached the voicemail inbox of-" you hung up. And called again.

You were about to give up when someone answered the phone on your fourth try: "Hello?"

Your heart probably stopped because this was not the voice of your father. "Who is this?" you said slowly.

"Who cares? You obviously didn't call for me," the voice answered. He sounded like he was in a hurry.

"Okay, just. This is my dad's number, is he okay? He wasn't vaccinated or anything, right?"

The voice on the other end was quiet. "I fished this phone out of the pocket of a dead guy."

No.

"Business clothes, dark hair, fedora looking hat thing? This him?"

You were speechless. When Jade put her hand on your arm you realized you were crying and you answered the voice. "Y-yes."

"Look, I'm really really sorry. He didn't die of the vaccination if that helps at all, cause from where I'm standing it looks like he was in a car accident. Rear ended, sent right through the windshield. Died on impact, probably. Fuck if I know, I'm no doctor." There was another, quieter voice on the line but you could barely tell what it was saying because you were holding back sobs.

You managed to stutter out a "Thank you."

"I'm glad I could help. Anyway, I gotta go. This area doesn't look too affected by the plague, so I'll give you some advice. Stay safe, but don't coop yourself up in one place for too long because you'll run out of food and fast. Get a weapon, it's pretty easy to ransack a local ammo shop if you've got one. Call someone if you can, you don't wanna be alone. Actually I'm surprised there's still cell reception here. Anyway later."

"Wait!" you manage. "Who are you?"

"...My name is Dave."

The line went dead.

"John, what happened? Is your dad okay?"

You found yourself slowly shaking your head and she hugged you. You hiccuped and hid your face in her shoulder. The both of you ended up staying like that for a good fraction of the evening.

Everything was normal when you woke up today and your biggest worry was finals. When the fuck did everything go so wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was gonna post this sooner but then i went to disneyland and now the word count for this chapter looks lame yeehaw


	3. Dave: NOW find out what the hell is going on here.

Okay, okay. Jeez, so what if you're stalling a little bit. You're still kind of freaked out that both of your parents are kind of dead now, even if they were complete douchebags.

You would have figured that Bro had gone off the deep end, if you hadn't seen those things for yourself. You also wondered when the hell he'd got a fucking sword, but it was pretty cool so you'd probably ask him later.

Your trusty friend Google managed to bring up some pretty gruesome stories of cannibalism in Houston and Dallas, and there was a video post from a news station in New York a couple weeks ago corresponding to when the stories started, if not a little earlier.

The video was a regular news broadcast, telling of a newfound cure for cancer and the deadly disease that came with the vaccinations. Wait, shit. Your mother had gotten one of those today, no wonder. You did wonder why they were still vaccinating people but you guessed the news hadn't spread to everyone yet.

When you went back downstairs, you told Dirk what was going on.

"Well, fuck. So that means this thing is probably all over the east side of America now," he figured.

"What are we gonna do?" you asked.

He sighed. "I think we have to leave."

You pursed your lips. "But we're safe here. We've got food, and a place to sleep, and-"

"And how long is that gonna last us? A week or two?" Dirk frowned. "If we take the stuff we have and leave now, we'll be able to last way longer on the road."

You hung your head because he was right. "Where will we go?"

"Out of the country, first of all." He hummed as he thought. "Maybe Canada?"

"Why wouldn't we go south? Mexico is like, right there."

"Cause Mexico doesn't have free health care, numbnuts. Also the whole country doesn't have marriage equality yet, and I doubt there'll be any progress after what's started happening here."

"And that matters?" you asked.

"Yeah," he answered. "It does."

You guessed it mattered to you too. You were gay, even leaning a little towards asexual homoromantic, at least that's what you thought would describe you best. Google could only teach you so much about your sexuality and the schools in Texas were shit anyway, so.

Dirk stood up from his seat on the stairs. He'd stuffed the bodies of your parents somewhere, and wherever that was you didn't want to find out. "We should get packing then, we'll leave tomorrow."

Your house surprisingly didn't have all that much food that you could take. You made sure to bring the can opener so your brother and you could actually eat half the food you brought. Dirk grabbed some things, like dry spaghetti or bunches of vegetables, but most of the food that went into cooking he left behind. You nabbed a few hiking backpacks from your parents' room as well, since they were bigger than the average backpacks you had (they had a lot of nice things and never told you about them, figures).

You spent the night sleeping on the couch. You insisted that Dirk sleep too.

"I can't," he reasoned, "I gotta look out for you."

Still, when you woke up the next morning you found him asleep on the floor.

You were surprised that Dirk could drive, actually, but when you looked at it, there weren't very many laws that he had to follow on the road. Mostly because the scene outside was something else entirely.

There were a few houses here and there that looked to have burned down. You saw a lot of people- _infected_ people wandering the streets and a lot of car accidents. Like, more than there would be on an infomercial to enforce safe driving.

Dirk had stolen your parents' wallets, too, because he didn't hesitate in filling up the gas tank as high as it would go when the car needed some.

"I doubt we'll run out of money before we get to Canada," he explained.

Save for a few more stops for gas, the car ride was less eventful than you thought it would be. You guessed that was for the better, though.

When the sun started setting, Dirk stopped the car in front of some motel. It looked completely abandoned. You'll admit that you had started to doze off, and you pushed your shades into your hair to rub your eyes. "Where are we?" you asked.

"A city right outside of Denver," he answered as he got out of the car. You grabbed your backpack and followed him. "I didn't want to go into the capital. More people."

You nodded in agreement.

The motel ended up being as abandoned as you thought, as there was no one at the front desk. "Hello?" you asked. You even dinged the bell like five times before Dirk stopped you. He went behind the counter and just nabbed a key for one of the rooms on the second floor. He tossed it to you and said to meet him upstairs cause he had to grab his stuff from the car.

When you climbed the stairs you stopped in your tracks. Because one of those infected people, those monsters, those things that you figured you would need a name for, those. One of whatever those things were was lumbering towards you. Your first instinct was to sprint back down the stairs and towards Dirk, but your body was moving on its own and back down the hall away from the stairs, and the thing.

It growled and when your backpack hit wall your heart stopped. You had to defend yourself, you had to stop this monster from ripping out your insides and treating your intestines like spaghetti. It lumbered closer to you and your breathing quickened. At this rate you were going to start hyperventilating.

You reached back into your backpack and when you pricked yourself on cold metal, you realized that you had grabbed Dirk's backpack. Your fingers were bleeding and shaking but you pulled out the sword and pointed it at the monster.

You would have admired Dirk for how well he'd fit the sword into the backpack if you weren't worrying so hard about _how the fuck to use this thing._ It was way heavier than you thought it would be and you were probably more likely to get the sword stuck in the wall, as opposed to cutting the monster's head off.

Still, you tried stabbing at it because by now it was close and the sword went right through its eye. Near black sludge poured out of the hole you made and you tried really hard to resist the urge to empty your stomach onto the floor. You managed, probably because the fear and adrenaline running through your veins made you keep stabbing it instead. When it stilled, you pulled the sword out of its head and it rolled onto the floor.

Your breathing was labored and you stepped around it, backing away slowly. You wiped your eyes again, only this time your hands came back wet. When your back hit something soft, something way more body-like than a wall, you froze.

Instead of the monster-like growl you were unfortunately already acquainted with, the voice behind you was both unfamiliar and welcoming.

"Oh, sweetie, you're bleeding," a woman's voice sounded behind you. "Come in, I'll patch you up."


	4. Roxy: Get the fuck outta dodge.

Yeah, you're going to do exactly that.

Your younger sister Rose was the first to see it happening. About a week ago, to be exact. Your mother was the head of the laboratory near your mansion and when her research provided positive results, she was elated. Vaccinations were sent out as fast as they could be made and nearly everyone in the local area had been vaccinated.

Your mother put off on vaccinating the two of you, mainly because she wasn't worried about either of you getting sick any time soon, and you understood that some people needed it more.

And then it happened. One of the test subjects your mother had vaccinated started eating the other and Rose had watched in horror.

Neither of you had believed her until one broke out and ate your mother. You had stabbed it with a pair of knitting needles(the nearest thing lying around) and Rose had looked away.

You think she might have been crying.

You realized it was no use just sitting there and letting yourselves die. There was no way the two of you would survive if you stayed at home anyway. Rose went to work packing food and a week's worth of varying clothes, meant for most of any weather. You had snuck back into the lab to grab what little weaponry your mother had as well as medical supplies.

You then cancelled any more shipments of vaccinations from being shipped, but the damage was done. Most of the states had shipments on the way, and if whatever disease this was hadn't spread already, it would soon. At least there hadn't been any international shipments yet.

"So where are we going?" Rose asked when the both of you had piled into your mother's car.

"West," you answered, "Vegas first. I know it seems dumb but we can get there in a few days and if the disease has spread there we can get a whole lotta moolah. Then we go for the coast and find a boat or something, and head to Hawaii. They're one of the few states that hasn't gotten it yet."

"Has Alaska?" she asked slowly.

You tried to recall as you started the car. "Crap, yeah, actually."

Rose was silent. "I hope Canada ups their border protection," she said after a minute.

"You and me both," You pressed your lips together and got onto the road.

You haven't driven much before, but it was kinda easy when everything was just highway. Still, your head was spinning by the time you pulled over somewhere just outside of Cleveland.

"I can drive if you need to take a break," Rose offered.

You snorted. "You're like, twelve."

Your sister frowned. "I'm thirteen."

"Close enough." You made sure the doors were locked before reclining your seat as far as it would go. "It's too dark out anyway, it'd be better if we rested."

"Shouldn't we find a motel? I mean if the disease hasn't spread this far we should be fine."

"Rose, we haven't passed a single moving car on the road since we passed Geneva. If we were to find a motel they're probably filled with, well you know."

She was silent again before just nodding.

The next day was filled with, well. More driving. You had woken up right before sunrise and were confused about where you were, and when you remembered everything, you finally cried. Rose had hugged you and that was probably your heart breaking when you realized that she'd woken up to the sound.

Around sundown you stopped in a gas station to refill(yeah, you'd gotten all the way to Omaha before running out of gas; your mother's car had crazy good MPG) and you and Rose had checked out the convenience store next to it. Since it seemed deserted, you began to loot.

It wasn't until you were halfway out the store with your arms filled with Doritos and strawberry candy that you heard a scream that really resembled your sister's. You dropped your stuff and skidded around the corner.

Rose was on the floor, backing away from a monster dressed in a cashier's vest. It even had the stupid nametag and with a glance you learned that Hi! His name is Larry.

You whistled and it looked your way with a snarl. "Yeah, that's right you ugly sunova bitch," you said loudly, guiding it down the aisle and away from Rose. "Come get me, a nice tasty snack."

In the corner of your eye you saw Rose get up and grab something, and a few steps later you learned that it was a wine bottle when she smashed it over the thing's head. It fell over, still groaning, so you stomped its face in. Hooray for teamwork.

After shoving the body outside you were smart this time and checked every nook and cranny for more monsters, but it looked like you were safe.

"I think we should spend the night here," Rose suggested. "We can barricade the door, and in the morning we can take what we can and get going."

"Good idea," you agreed.

The two of you ended up shoving a food shelf in front of the door and fashioned beds out of the clothes you grabbed from the car. You popped open a wine bottle(when would you get this chance again?) and took turns with Rose taking swigs.

Neither of you mentioned that neither of you were old enough.

"I miss Mom," Rose croaked after a hiccup. You'd withheld the bottle from her considering you didn't want either of you too drunk and soon enough you stopped drinking from it too.

"Me too, sis," you said softly, leaning your head atop hers. "She'd probably have a better plan than us."

"Don't say that. You know what you're doing too," she argued. "Hawaii will be more than safe from those. Those things."

"Guess we're gonna need a name for the ill," you figured with a grin.

"I don't wanna go so far as to say, but should I suggest zombies?" She laughed a little. "I mean, I'd feel terrible for starting the zombie apocalypse, but that's what it feels like."

You ended up laughing too. You'd seen a number of zombie movies and the monsters were similar enough. "Guess so."

* * *

The next evening, Rose practically begged you to stop at a motel or something.

"I know it's a bad idea, but sleeping on car seats and clothes is gonna kill our backs. I doubt that's very good for survival," she had said.

So you caved in. You stopped at the first motel off the highway you saw and scoped out the area. You kept your mother's rifle on you now, and Rose had taken to her knitting needles that you'd used so long ago. At least, it feels like long ago. She said something about it having two functions now, knitting and killing. You don't know if that comforted you or not.

After finding the main desk and most of downstairs empty, you chose the second floor room closest to the stairs. It provided good protection and a quick escape. It did have a zombie in the bathtub, which you spent a few bullets on.

"I was gonna shower," Rose complained.

"Sorry, I'll get rid of it," you said with a roll of your eyes.

Oh dear god it smelled. You dragged it out and pushed it out the window. It splattered when it hit the ground and you cringed.

You turned back to share your disgust with Rose but she'd disappeared into the bathroom.

You didn't hear it until like the third time, but when you did you froze. There was another zombie going down the hall. It looked at you, and you looked back, but then there were sounds of something coming upstairs and you nearly groaned. You only had so many bullets.

However, the thing turned away and walked further down the hall. You were slow to poke your head out but when you did you nearly smiled.

There was a boy, an _alive_ boy stabbing the thing through the head but then you realized he was crying. You stepped out to get a better look and he backed into you.

"Oh, sweetie, you're bleeding!" you realized with a start. You were excited to see that you weren't alone with Rose on this doomed planet and you were ready to keep it that way. "Come in, I'll patch you up."


	5. Dirk: Get to the bottom of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (happy international literacy day! read some stuff even if its not this yeehaw)

"Wait, wait, wait," you start. "You started this whole mess?"

The girl who had introduced herself as Roxy shrugged almost casually. "My mom was the scientist in charge of the development of the cure, yeah."

The younger girl who was cleaning the blood off of your brother (you think her name was like, Lily or something? Some flower. You hadn't been listening) piped up. "It wasn't her fault, she didn't know and the initial tests came up positive."

"But what brings you two here all the way from New York?" you asked. "Why wouldn't you just snatch a boat and head for Europe or whereever?"

"The East is a small place," Roxy said. "Since we had that idea, so did probably lots of other people. Some of which were probably infected. What we wanna do is head for Vegas and sweep up all the money there, provided it still has value."

Buttercup or whatever pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm starting to think this was a poor plan. No offense, Roxy, but it would have been easier to get a boat from there anyway."

"It's our fault, I didn't want people who knew us ganging up on the two defenseless little girls who caused the whole shebang." Roxy eyed you as she spoke, as if she were worried you thought the same thing.

"I don't blame either of you. Or your mother," you explained. You could see that they were probably really guilty about this whole mess. "The shitty homophobic excuses you could call my parents are resting easy down in Hell, so why should I care who did it? So long as I can protect Dave, which I can, it aint that much worse than before." That was a lie. The few friends you had were probably dead and you felt bad.

"You didn't do a very good job of protecting him just now, didja?" Roxy retorted with a hand on her hip.

You were about to argue but Dave beat you to the punch. "I can take care of myself, yknow. It's just a little blood."

"Half of it is yours," the younger girl observed. Rose, that's it.

"I'm fine," Dave insisted.

"Technically that is our fault too," Rose apologized. "We should have checked more of the motel than just this room."

"We've only got so much ammo. And I have honestly no idea where we'd go about getting more weapon shit," Roxy cut in.

"So, assuming there's no one else coming to help us out, we only have a sword and some kinda gun to our name," you pointed out. "Fucking fantastic."

"We?" Roxy raised an eyebrow at you.

"By 'we,' I am assuming we're not gonna kill each other over something stupid and have some sort of collaborative game plan."

"Welp. Assuming our game plan for Vegas is dead," Roxy and her sister shared a glance before she continued, "I think we should hear what you've got going on."

"Canada," Dave said simply. He winced when Rose dabbed at his forehead with some kinda shitty motel disinfectant. "Land of free health care and home of the moose."

"It's our best bet," you conclude. You didn't feel like getting into what your life was like beforehand and you didn't think Dave did either.

"Okay, well!" Roxy clapped her hands together. You were grateful for her somewhat positive attitude and it almost made you smile. "If you two don't mind, we should put together our supplies and hit the road as a group!"

You all agreed and it seemed like a really good idea until the next morning came and there came the issue of transportation.

After a few minutes of discussion that started to lead to arguing Rose cut us off.

"We will take the boys' car. Yes, Roxy, I know it doesn't have any sentimental value but the storage space is larger. Dave and I will sit in the back seat and you two will alternate driving every hour. Happy?"

The three of you nodded. The younger Lalonde sure knew how to get shit done.

"Dave, help me pack up the car since we won't contribute any by being passengers." That made sense. Dave seemed to think so too because he nodded. "Roxy, you can decide what of our mother's we have sitting in the car, and Dirk can get any useful supplies from the motel."

You all split up to do your respective jobs.

You looted any motel room that actually had good supplies stored away in it before heading to the shitty staff kitchen they had downstairs. It was properly evacuated, save for a few zombies(Roxy had suggested the name and you found it laughable so the name stuck) lumbering about. You were swift to cut off their heads but when you still heard grumbling you turned to look.

There was another squished under an uncharacteristically tipped refrigerator. It reached and squirmed for you despite its inability to move; however it must have really wanted to chew on you because it was able to tear itself from its squished half under the fridge and crawl towards you with its innards spilling out behind it.

Your nose wrinkled at the putrid smell and backed up from it. You briefly wondered how that didn't kill it but didn't bother to put any more thought to it. Besides, it was getting closer. You drove your sword through its head and it collapsed with an ugly squelch. You didn't feel like getting any more grossed out today so you took all the food you physically could stuff in your back and got the fuck out of there.

Everyone else was waiting for you when you got there and you gave a shrug in apology.

"There were some complications but it's all good," you explained simply.

Dave nodded in understanding and got in the car. The girls wore more curious expressions but eventually followed suit with Roxy in the driver's seat. You let her and climbed into the passenger seat after putting your stuff in the trunk. You hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and it was easy for the movement of the car to lull you to sleep.

* * *

"No, no, no, no, no!!"

You woke up to the sound of feminine whining and you sat up. Sleeping in the car did not do much good for your neck.

You also found that the car was no longer moving. And that it was the dead of night.

Dave and Rose were passed out in the back seat and Roxy was nowhere to be seen. Probably because the windshield of the car was obscured by its hood.

You got out of the car to see the problem. The engine was visibly smoking and Roxy was running her hands through her hair and getting car grease everywhere.

"What's the matter?" you asked.

She turned to look at you. "The car broke down and the engine's busted."

"It's my parents come back to haunt me through their shitty car," you attempted to joke. "What do we do?"

"We can't carry all the stuff we have." Roxy paced a little. "We'll have to find another car or ditch the supplies."

"Which is a stupid idea," you cut in. "We won't last a day without supplies."

She nodded. "We passed a town about ten minutes ago, it can't be that far by foot."

You sighed. You knew neither of you wanted to wake up your respective siblings and that meant that one of you were going to go. And you didn't want her going alone. "Where are we, exactly?"

"Just inside of Oregon," Roxy answered.

You did the math in your head. You'd slept for a good thirteen, fourteen hours? "You could have woken me up to drive."

"'m not tired," she said with a shrug. The lie practically leaked out of her mouth and you pressed your lips into a tight line.

"Wake Dave up, he can watch over the car while you get some rest." You pinched the bridge of your nose. "I'll be back with a car when I can."

"No," she said flatly. "We can lock the car, and go together."

"You're sleep deprived," you insisted. "You'll hardly be able to make the walk there."

"I want to help," Roxy said stubbornly.

You sighed. She wasn't going to yield so you did instead. "If we're gone more than an hour you're going straight back."

Roxy nodded. "I will."

After a look back at the car and making sure it was secure, you went.

 


	6. Roxy: Stay awake and alive.

Your eyes drooped as you dragged your feet behind Dirk.

It wasn't your fault that the car broke down! And it wasn't as if it was just out of gas, either. You knew enough about cars.

But you couldn't let Dirk go alone to find a car while you snoozed uselessly away in the car. You didn't wanna spoil it to him, but he was kind of accidentally irresponsible. At least from what you could tell so far and from his stories about his life after everything had gone down. Even beforehand you had a sneaking suspicion his parents weren't the best at raising children to be proper adults.

So, here you were wandering the streets of some place called Ontario and trying to find a car. The job seemed harder than you thought, as for one you needed one with room for four passengers and storage room. You also needed to find a car that hadn't been crashed into the side of a building or that wasn't crawling with zombies, both nearly impossible to avoid as you wandered the streets of downtown.

At least you were still good at killing the things in your tired state. Thankfully only two had come across your path so far. Dirk had sliced the cranium of the first one while you'd bashed in the head of the other one with the butt of your rifle.

"This is starting to be a wild goose chase," Dirk said as he stared down a flashing traffic light on the ground.

"Well what other choice do we have," you replied, looking down an empty street.

He makes a grunt that sounds like he agrees with you. "We might have to go more residential."

Your feet practically cried in protest. "It'll take longer," you start to argue.

"Like you said, what other choice?" Dirk glanced at you. "If we can't find a car, we're royally fucked."

You realized that he was right. "All right, but let's check this next street first?"

He just nodded and walked down the sidewalk. You followed.

A dull scritching next to you made you jump and you looked to the side. It looked to be an abandoned shop with one of those things licking up the window and clawing at it, probably for you. You shuddered and kept walking.

As unfortunately suspected, the next street was completely abandoned. You probably died a little on the inside and Dirk must have noticed.

"Roxy, I think you should go back."

You were quick to shake your head. "I can't, it's a bad idea to let you go alone."

"I can take care of myself," he insisted.

"Well, I can't," you say in an attempt to have him let you stay. "It's dangerous for me to just head back now."

"Then we both go back." He stepped closer to you and, despite your similar heights, you had the sneaking suspicion he's resolved to carry you if needed.

"But we're so close!" you said.

Dirk sighed and rubbed his temples. "Then what the fuck do we do? You're obviously about to pass out."

"I just. I can do this," you rubbed at your eyes and looked at him.

He pressed his lips together and stepped away. He tapped his sword on his shoulder and you let him think it out.

"If we don't find anything in the next hour, we go," he proposes after a moment.

You're quick to agree, nodding your head and looking up at the moon. "Let's go then."

It only took ten minutes for the shops to dwindle and for more and more houses to appear. It also meant more and more cars, but.

"What the fuck is this bullshit," Dirk said as you passed the sixth intact car you've seen so far. "Do none of these people have kids, or friends, or what."

You couldn't help but giggle as you peeked in the front seat of the next two-seater. "They all seem like a bunch of boring twats to me."

"Yeah, probably." His change in tone made you look up and you smiled when you saw a car that could actually possibly work.

"How's that one?" you asked as you joined him at his side.

"Locked," he replied as he tried the handle. "Do you know how to pick a lock?"

"Nah, but I've seen em do it in like a hundred movies." Instead of actually doing that, though, you walked around to the trunk and opened it.

Dirk was silent for a moment and you actually had to look back to see if he was still there. "How."

"I saw it was open," you say sheepishly. You flash a peace sign before worming into the car and unlocking it.

There weren't any keys in the car, at least that you could see, and you opened the door to look at Dirk. "Do you know how to hotwire a car?"

"No, but I've seen them do it in like a hundred movies." He flashed you a grin and looks under the steering wheel. He had to pry something open and you hugged your legs on the seat. That couldn't have been good for the metal of his sword.

Dirk pulled out a couple wires and pressed his lips together. You leaned forward on your elbows and hummed. "Try the red and blue ones?" you asked. "Those are like the generic ones, right." He nodded and pressed those together. They sparked and the car made a noise akin to starting. "Try em for longer."

He did exactly that and the car rumbled to life. And it still had half a tank of gas. You cheered a little and he glanced up at you. "Not so hard," he said after a moment.

You nodded as he stood up. You got out of the car too, mostly because by now you doubted you could drive all the way back. Then a feeling washed over you that you really hated. "Dirk I gotta pee."

He was about to get in the driver's seat when he stared back at you. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

"It's fine, I'll just bust into this house and use the bathroom real quick."

Dirk sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, just hurry up. And don't go and fall asleep on the toilet or something."

You nodded quickly and went about breaking into the house. This was easier to do, as all you had to do was break a window and climb through. The house seemed quiet enough, so you deemed it safe enough to relieve yourself.

Or maybe not. As you flushed(you were surprised the water pressure even worked), you heard a sickening growl. And then two. Hastily, you got your pants back up and darted the hell out of there, knowing well enough that this house wasn't as deserted as you thought.

You glanced back to see if you were being followed. Thankfully you weren't.

And then your head connected with something hard and everything went dark.


	7. Rose: Wake up.

It's dark. Your back hurts and you're slumped up next to Dave and it's dark. Briefly you wonder if you've stopped for the night but you see neither Dirk nor your sister in the car.

You sit up with a yawn and open the door, only to find that it's locked. No problem. You manually unlock it and open the door.

However, this causes the car alarm to go off and Dave to jolt up from the back seat. You groan, because it's just your luck that it's one of those cars.

"What did you do?" Dave asked. He had to shout to be heard over the alarm.

"I unlocked it manually," you yelled in reply. You climbed back in the car and into the front seat, trying to figure out how to turn it off. You didn't succeed.

Dave reached over your shoulder and presses some buttons, whatever button he could, really, to try and silence the car. It didn't work either, but he did manage to turn on radio static, the windshield wipers, and all of the external lights of the car.

"Someone's gonna see us," you warned, your ears starting to hurt. By  _someone,_ you didn't really include human beings.

"We need the car keys," he said frantically. "They're not here!"

You put your hands over your ears. "Then what do we do?!"

Dave chewed on his lip. "Get out of the car."

"Wh-"

"Get out!"

You scramble out of the car and look behind you to see that Dave had brought a backpack with him. He handed you a butterknife that was probably snatched from the motel.

Even with the car's alarm still blaring and drowning out half of your thoughts you can obviously see that Dirk and Roxy weren't even outside the car. The hood was smoking, too, so it wasn't hard to connect the pieces.

You led Dave far enough away from the car that you didn't have to shout. "I think they went to get a new car," you shared.

"They wouldn't just  _leave_ us, right?" Dave pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No, I don't think so. Though knowing my sister I doubt she'd let Dirk go all by himself."

"Dirk's the same way," he replied. "What do we do?"

"Well there isn't an exact way telling which way they would have gone." It's true, there was miles of nothing in every direction you could see. It didn't give you much cover, but it also gave you lots of time to prepare should you see something coming.

"Can't you just try calling him?" you asked.

"We don't have phones," he replied. 

"So you're saying we wait," he said after a moment.

You opened your mouth to reply and was cut off by a car horn. A  _different_ car horn. Headlights flooded your vision and you squinted to try and see.

A car swerved to a stop some ten meters away from you and someone got out of the car. It was Dirk. A million questions were about to flood out of your lips but then he carried Roxy out from the back and from what you could tell she was unconscious.

"She hit her head," he was saying quickly. "There was a zombie about two seconds away from chewing on her arm if she hadn't screamed. I wouldn't have known. I'm so sorry, I should have kept a better eye on her, I should have-"

"It's okay," you forgive softly, cutting him off. "The important thing is neither of you are injured."

He nodded. "I don't know when she'll wake up, but there doesn't seem to be any external bleeding."

"Let her sleep," Dave suggested. "I'm guessing that by getting this car, our other one is done for."

"Yeah, we need to-" Dirk pursed his lips. "Is that the car alarm?"

"Yeah, it is," Dave said, looking at you. You frowned at him.

Dirk probably rolled his eyes(you couldn't tell very well in the darkness) and pulled out some car keys. A button press later and you were all engulfed in sweet silence.

And then a groan sounded and you all looked towards Roxy in Dirk's arms. She rubbed her head and yawned. "Fuckin hell."

"Hey, don't move too much," Dirk warned. "You hurt your head."

"That explains a lot." She just rested her cheek against his chest and clung to him. "I wanna sleep, Dirk."

"All right, all right. You can snooze in the back seat while we pack up the car," he said.

It made your heart hurt to see his obvious care for her. It wasn't something you were used to providing and now that your mother was gone, Roxy needed it.

Dave bumped you with his elbow. "Let's get the stuff from the car." You nodded and followed him back to the broken vehicle.

Dirk joined the two of you later. Dave nudged him and he was dismissed with a "Shut up, dude." It only took an hour to move your supplies from one car to the other, and after locking the car(and making the two of you PROMISE not to unlock it manually again), you all took a well earned nap.

* * *

"Oh no."

It was well into the afternoon by the time any sort of complication arose. And it sure was a complication.

"How the hell are we gonna get across this," Roxy said, a trace of disbelief lacing her voice. 

"Excellent question," you reply, dumbfounded.

Before your car stood a river. Yeah, no big deal, just cross the bridge and keep going.

Except for the fact that the bridge was overrun with cars.

"We've gotta go around this," Dave said.

"There's no other way around for miles," Dirk countered. "We don't have enough gas for the trip and I doubt there are any stations."

"Then we have to leave the car behind," you figure. "We can cross the bridge with as much as we can carry and get a car at the other end."

Everyone else was nodding(Roxy not so much but the gesture was appreciated) and Dirk was the first to get out of the car.

Eventually you had divvied up what you could among the four of you. Dirk carried your weapons, Dave had the food, Roxy carried the medical supplies, and your backpack was stuffed with clothing. Picking your way through the cars was easier than driving, and it was smooth sailing until you got about halfway across.

The last thing you expected was to hear a phone ringing.

You all kind of just stopped to stare at the thing until it stopped ringing. And then it started ringing again. What this implied was that there was someone else calling.

Dave grabbed it from the corpse on the ground when he was in reach. You cringed at the body, it's entire skull having been crushed into the pavement. From the angle it was at, it was safe to assume he'd died from a car accident. Roxy nudged you to keep going and you realized Dave was talking to whoever was on the other end.

"...Died on impact, probably. Fuck if I know, I'm no doctor." Right. The body.

"Language, Dave," Dirk called from behind him. You ended up following and pulling Dave along as he talked. After hanging up, he pocketed the phone.

"What," he said after you'd given him a glance. "I've got a gut feeling. And the feeling is that he needs me."

You decided to ask questions later. He needed this too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case you were confused about the timeline, this chapter happens at the same time as chapter 2


End file.
